Tim Kittila, Director of Data Center Strategy for Parallel Technologies, recently spoke with Data Center POST about the company’s attendance at Data Center World in Los Angeles April 3-6. Mr. Kittila is responsible for leading the company’s data center practice, which includes helping clients with their colocation, build, or strategy. In this Q&A Mr. Kittila also shares insight into Parallel Technologies focus on people, major challenges in the data center industry and how customer needs are changing.

Data Center POST, Kathy Xu (DCP-KX) Question: Tell our readers about your company. What do you do and what problems do you solve?

Parallel Technologies, Tim Kittila (Parallel Technologies-TK) Answer: Parallel Technologies, founded in 1983, assists clients in selecting the right strategy for their data center. Whether they build, colo, or host in the cloud, our philosophy starts with understanding the business goals and objectives before providing a solution. Once that solution is understood, Parallel has the data center expertise in design-build-migrations-operations and managed services.

DCP-KX Q: What do you attribute your company’s success to?

Parallel Technologies-TK A: Our success, on the data center side of Parallel Technologies, boils down to one factor: people. The people we have selected to be a part of the Parallel team are always looking for ways to exceed client expectations, provide “right-sized” solutions, provide practical business solutions, provide thought-leadership, and always looking to do the “right” thing for the customer.

Our team is focused on this one very important niche: the data center. I can’t speak highly enough of the team’s methodology, process and ability to understand the various details to make sure a customer’s data center is reliable.

DCP-KX Q: How do you see the data center industry evolving? What do you think is the greatest challenge in the data center industry?

Parallel Technologies-TK A: It appears that businesses are interested in simplifying their data center decisions. A few years back the talking point was “should you be in the data center business?” We believe that the question should be “how do you want to be in the data center business?”

By asking this question — build, colo or cloud — new models are out there for customers to colo portions of their data center, migrate portions of the virtual to the cloud and also host in an on-premise data center. The greatest challenges in the data center industry are the security of data and the stability of network capabilities. Demand for data is only growing — we need to find ways to move packets more efficiently but still maintain the necessary security of the data. Then the options for build/colo/cloud become simplified.

DCP-KX Q: What new developments are on the horizon for your company?

Parallel Technologies-TK A: Parallel Technologies consists of two main business units: building infrastructure and data centers. Our integrated data center design and operations team simplifies the “build or colo” decision for clients by building infrastructure for low voltage communication cabling and physical security.

Starting our conversations with enterprise IT architects during the assessment process allows us to learn more about what decisions will help businesses successfully move to the cloud. We have witnessed how businesses make these decisions over several years and are now able to proactively consult with customers. It boils down to the applications and where the data is stored, which once again goes back to security and network bandwidth. Customers seem to need higher availability than ever, and any delay of retrieving information impacts business performance.

DCP-KX Q: What would you like to accomplish at Data Center World?

Parallel Technologies-TK A: I am looking forward to learning more on distributed computing, microgrids, micro-DCs, and the impact they have on networks.

DCP-KX: Thank you for your time and best of luck at Data Center World.